Membership Growth Strategies

Membership programs are an important part of any business. They provide value to customers, build brand loyalty, and generate revenue. But how do you grow a membership program? In this post, we’re sharing five strategies to help you grow your membership program without any money.

5 Overlooked Strategies for Growing your Membership Program

#1. Clarity - Be clear about who your membership program is for.

Making sure you have a clear idea of your group’s purpose and target audience will make it easier to market and grow. When you create a membership program you need to dig into your target audience profiles and understand what members want and need from a community - and deliver it to them!

The “Starbucks Baristas ONLY” Facebook group makes it clear in their about section who is their preferred member.

Before you start a membership program:

• Define your target audience (who belongs to your group?)
• Develop a couple of personas/member profiles
• Find out their interests and hobbies

#2: Consistency - Create a schedule and stick to it.

Consistency is key for growing a membership community. Once you have identified your members’ profiles and started to have a few members join it’s time to think of strategies that will keep them there. A key factor is to stay organized as a community manager. If your members feel that you’re not consistent they’re more likely to leave.

Here are some actions you can take:

• Set a goal for your membership program
• Create a welcome sequence
• Build a content calendar
• Have a monthly schedule for posts, meetings, giveaways, lives, etc.

#3: Connection - Build a personal connection with your members

Trying to grow a community is not just about numbers. An engaged and active community is more valuable than a group that is made of random people. That’s why a key strategy is to build personal connections with members.

Here’s how to improve membership connection:

• Give members direct access to communicate with your staff, team or yourself
• Offer exclusive resources and rewards for engaged members
• Connect your new members with your existing community
• Make sure your content is relevant, useful and helpful
• Reach out to members for feedback and share frequent updates

Example: Hubspot hosts frequent challenges and rewards winners with prizes.

#4: Community - Turn members into an engaged community

Engagement is important for long-term membership retention. So you have to do your best to keep members active in your community. But how do you engage members?

Here are some tips:

• Speak to your members directly and invite them to respond
• Ask them to share their personal experiences
• Ask them direct questions like “What do you think about …”
• Invite members to connect with you outside of your community (eg. Facebook, Instagram)
• Create valuable content that your members love

#5: Content - Give members value with quality content

One of the most overlooked membership growth tactics is to listen to your audience and create the right content.

What is quality content?

• Useful - tips, tutorials, training, information
• Provides value to existing members - discounts, exclusive content
• Attracts new members - unique value solves a problem, helpful

Examples of quality content:

• Blog articles
• PDFs and E-books
• Guides
• Webinar training
• Emails
• Social media posts

Ready to start your online membership community?

Let us know what your community is all about!